THE SUPPLY PROBLEM

Advanced reactors need fuel that barely exists yet. Corium tracks who has supply locked and who's still exposed.

HALEU requires uranium enriched to 5–20% — above standard LEU but below weapons grade. Centrus Energyoperates the only NRC-licensed HALEU production facility in the US, at Piketon, Ohio, under a DOE cost-share agreement. Russia's Tenex was the primary global supplier until sanctions effectively ended that pathway.

Each reactor design requires a specific fuel form — TRISO pellets, metal fuel, oxide fuel. Fabrication facilities require separate NRC Part 70 licensing. BWXT and Framatomeare the primary US fabricators. Each company's fuel must be individually qualified before first load.